meanwhile, john boehner started the talks after a standoff that lasted almost a week. then there was the surprise that rocked the capital today. south carolina conservative, jim demint, a hero to many, is retiring next month. nbc's david gregory, the moderator of "meet the press," has more on the surprise announcement. >> reporter: about four years early, a lot of people thought it would happen by 2017, but not at this point. in his term, demint was somebody who turbo-charged the tea party movement. he told me he would like to see the party really adopt more of these tea party ideas. that really didn't happen. there were more internal fights. he did have success in fielding candidates and also failed. he said they didn't do enough to establish what the party was for. he is going to try to be a force behind the party. >> and one more, senator coburn, from texas, somebody the president has a good relationship with opened the door toward raising taxes on the wealthy. is this the start of something? >> reporter: yes, i think a lot of things are misplaced. i talked to a lot